Japanese Tea Garden

﻿﻿﻿﻿ Welcome to this beautiful Japanese Tea Garden, located inside the Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco, California. This location is the oldest public Japanese Tea Garden in the United States. Originally constructed as part of the World’s Fair, during the California, Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. This garden features...

﻿﻿﻿ Here inside the Garden, you’ll find influences by various aspects of Japanese culture and religion, like this statue of Buddha, found directly ahead. Here we see Buddha, with his hands placed, in the Abhayamudrā , position. Immediately after attaining enlightenment this hand gesture was shown by Buddha, and it...

﻿﻿﻿ Up ahead, we can see a circular bridge called a taiko bashi. This type of Japanese structure is sometimes referred to as a Moon or Drum bridge. It gets its name from the full circle shape that it creates with its reflection on the water. There is an inscription...

﻿﻿﻿ Every detail from the flora selection to the placement of rocks, the water flow, the paths, even the location of the trees, everything, is purposeful, to emphasize a natural flow, as embodied in Taoism. In Shintoism, it is believed that the spirits of ancestors, and spirits of the Gods...

﻿﻿﻿ When the World’s Fair concluded in 1894, Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant and master gardener, oversaw the transition of the Japanese Village fair exhibit to the permanent Japanese Tea Garden. Once the expansion and transition was complete, the tea garden had all but tripled in size. To fill up...

﻿﻿﻿ A proper traditional rock garden, follows very specific artistic principles. Techniques use to achieve this art form, include careful consideration of the stones used, including their color, size, shape, placement, asymmetry, and overall garden geometry. Here we find ourselves in a peaceful location, located deep within the garden, and...

﻿﻿﻿ This incredible structure is called a pagoda, and it is a five-tiered Buddhist shrine that was installed as part of the garden’s exhibit, in the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. Pagoda’s originate from the Buddhist religion in India and East Asia and they come in two types, ones used for tombs,...

﻿﻿﻿﻿ Interestingly, Japanese tea gardens are a place of sacred ritual, where Japanese culture and religious philosophies, are communicated through the respected art forms of landscaping and architecture. Japanese aesthetics are often influenced by the geographic location of Japan, where an emphases on isolation and the importance of water, can...

﻿﻿﻿ As you travel towards the back of the garden you will encounter a variety of trees, including flowering cherries, azaleas, magnolias, camellias, Japanese maples, pines, cedars and cypresses. Up ahead, just beyond this fence, there is a Buddhist shrine called a pagoda. When visiting this very location, TC remarked...